Civil War Poetry, and an American Modernist

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Byline: Vincent D. Balitas, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

J. D. McClatchy, the editor of this addition to The Library of America's American Poets Project, reminds us that "over 620,000 soldiers died during those four years, nearly as many as in all of America's other wars combined." Those who saw Ken Burns' version of the war on PBS easily recall the carnage of Shiloh and Antietam, the horrors of Southern and Northern prisoners-of-war camps, the destruction of Atlanta.

Now we have a collection of poems through which we can view one of the most devastating chapters in our nation's history, a time whose effects we still bear. Most of the poems, "anthems and elegies, rallying cries and defenses" are, as the editor readily admits, "second-rate." Nevertheless, although many of the poems are of little literary merit, there should be no doubt but that they are of historical importance. This volume, therefore, should attract a large audience of readers who are Civil War …